Prime Minister's Office
English rendering of PM’s speech at the inauguration of PM-KISAN Samman Sammelan 2022 in New Delhi
Bharat Mata ki – Jai!
Bharat Mata ki – Jai!
Bharat Mata ki – Jai!
Echoes of festivals are being heard all around and Diwali is knocking at the doors. And there is such an occasion today that there are start-ups and lakhs of farmers of the country on the same platform in the same premises. Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan, Jai Vigyan and Jai Anusandhan! In a way, we can see a live form of this mantra in this ceremony.
Friends,
Today, all the important stakeholders of India's farming sector are directly and virtually connected with us in this program from every nook and corner of the country. Today many important steps are being taken in the direction of making the life of the farmers easier, making the farmers more prosperous and making our farming systems more modern from such an important platform. Today more than 600 Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samruddhi Kendras are being opened in the country. I was just going through an exhibition which has been organized here. There are so many technology innovations out there that I wanted to stay there a little more, but I did not want you to wait any further since it is the season of festivals, and therefore, I came to the podium. I really congratulate Mansukhbhai and his team for creating such an innovative model in the form of Prime Minister Kisan Samruddhi Kendra. It is not just a sale-purchase centre of fertilizers for the farmers, but this Kisan Samruddhi Kendra is a hub connecting with the farmers, responding to all their queries and helping them in every way.
Friends,
A short while ago, crores of farmers of the country got another installment of 16,000 crore rupees in the form of PM Kisan Samman Nidhi. Those who are sitting here can check their mobile phones and a message must have come by now that Rs. 2000 has been deposited in your account. There is no middleman and no company! Money goes directly into the farmers’ accounts. I congratulate all our beneficiary farmer families in every nook and corner of the country for receiving this money ahead of Diwali and important agricultural works.
I would also like to congratulate the agriculture start-ups taking part in this event for their new innovations for the betterment of the farmers, for lessening the hard work of the farmers, for saving their money, for speeding up their work and for ensuring more yield in their small fields. Many such important things have been done by the youths who are involved in the start-ups. There are so many innovations visible here. I congratulate all such youths who are joining hands with the farmers and heartily welcome them to participate in this event.
Friends,
Today, a plan to provide affordable and quality fertilizers to farmers under the Bharat Brand and it should be in the form of One Nation, One Fertilizer, has started. Our farmer brothers and sisters can’t forget the days before 2014 when there used to be a major crisis in the fertilizer sector in the form of the black marketing of urea. The rights of the farmers were snatched away and they had to face ‘lathis’ . Major urea factories in the country were closed years ago. A new system had come up. Coffers of many people used to be filled with the import of urea, and therefore, they drew pleasure in closing down the factories here. We prevented black marketing of urea by coating it with 100% neem. We have worked hard to revive the country's six largest urea factories, which were closed for years.
Friends,
Now India is rapidly moving towards self-sufficiency in urea production through Liquid Nano Urea. Nano urea costs less and gives maximum yield. One sack of urea has now been replaced with a small bottle of Nano urea. This is the achievement of science and technology. Now the farmers have been rid of the problems of carrying sacks of urea, the cost of transportation and also to keep a separate space in the house to store it. Along with other purchases, you can buy just a bottle of urea in the market and your work is done.
Today two more major changes and reforms are being added to our efforts in the fertilizer sector. The first change is that a campaign has been started from today to develop more than 3.25 lakh fertilizer shops across the country as Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samruddhi Kendras. These will be such centres where not only fertilisers will be available, but also seeds, equipment, facilities for soil testing and every other relevant information required by the farmers.
Secondly, our farmer brothers and sisters have been rid of the problem of wandering from one place to another. This is the major change that Narendra Singh ji Tomar was describing in great detail. It is in regard to the name and brand of fertilizer and the identical quality of production. Until now, the companies used to promote their brands of fertilizers through campaigns and offer maximum commission to those selling their brands of fertilizers. As a result, those getting maximum commission used to sell a particular brand of fertilizers and would not sell other brands of fertilizers on which they got little commission. As a result, the farmers were under distress to get the quality fertilizers according to their needs due to competitions, different names and because of the arbitrariness of the agents selling fertilizers. The farmer was also confused if his neighbour bought a different brand. He would often dump the fertilizer that he bought earlier and would buy the branded fertilizer which his neighbour had bought. Due to this confusion, sometimes the farmers used to spend double the amount on fertilizers.
It was a matter of concern for the farmers whether to buy DAP, MOP or NPK. Many times he had to pay more money for the more popular fertilizer. Now suppose, if he is fancied by a particular brand. If he does not get that particular brand of fertilizer, he would tend to use double the amount of fertilizer in his field for he is not too sure about the quality of the fertilizer that he bought. As a result, it used to cost him more. All these problems have been addressed now.
Now the farmers are going to get rid of all kinds of confusion and better fertilizer will be available to them under the One Nation, One Fertilizer scheme. Now there will be only one brand for the quality urea and that is ‘Bharat’ which will be sold across the country. Now urea will be available in the country only under the brand name of ‘Bharat’. When there will be only one brand of fertilizer across the country, then the fight over fertilizers of different companies will also end. This will also reduce the cost of fertilizer and it will be available in sufficient quantities easily.
Friends,
Today, about 85 percent of our farmers in the country are small farmers. They do not have more than one hectare or one and a half hectares of land. Moreover, with the passage of time, when the family expands, then even such a small piece of land gets fragmented further into smaller pieces. The land gets further divided into smaller pieces. And nowadays, we are also facing the problem of climate change. Diwali is almost here, but rain refuses to go away. Natural disasters continue to strike the country.
Friends,
Similarly, if the soil is inferior, if the health of our Mother Earth is not good, if our Mother Earth remains ill, then fertility of our Mother Earth will also be affected. There will be more problems if the quality of water also gets worse. The farmer experiences all these problems in his everyday life. In such a situation, we have to create new systems in farming, adopt more scientific methods with an open mind to increase the agricultural yield.
Keeping this in mind, we have laid more emphasis on increasing the use of scientific methods in agriculture. Today 22 crore Soil Health Cards have been issued to the farmers in the country so that they get accurate information about the health of the soil. We are making conscious efforts in a scientific way to ensure that the best quality seeds are available to the farmers. In the last 7-8 years, more than 1700 varieties of such seeds have been made available to the farmers which can withstand the changing climatic conditions.
In order to increase the quality of the seeds of the traditional coarse grains like Millets, many hubs are being built in the country today. With the efforts of the government to encourage India's coarse grains all over the world, next year has also been declared as the International Year of Coarse Cereals. Our coarse grains are going to be discussed all over the world. Now the opportunity lies before you how to conquer the world.
All of you are also well aware of the work that has been done regarding irrigation in the last eight years. There is a tendency of our farmers to fill their fields with water till the entire crop is submerged in water and turn the whole field into a pond. As a result, there is waste of water, soil is also ruined and crops are also destroyed. We have also worked in this direction by getting the farmers out of this situation. We are giving a lot of emphasis on per drop more crop i.e., micro irrigation. We are emphasizing drip irrigation and sprinkler.
Earlier our sugarcane farmers were not ready to believe that sugarcane can be cultivated even with less water. Now it has been proved that even with sprinklers, sugarcane cultivation can be very good and water can be saved. He had this thing in his mind that just as if an animal is given more water, it will give more milk, and similarly, if a sugarcane field is given more water then more sugarcane juice will come out. Such has been the state of affairs in our country. About 70 lakh hectares of land in the country has been brought under the purview of micro-irrigation in the last seven-eight years.
Friends,
Natural farming also provides an important way to solve the challenges of the future. We are experiencing a lot of awareness across the country today in this regard. Farmers are working on a large scale in Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh as well as in UP and Uttarakhand for natural farming. In Gujarat, plans are being made at the district and gram panchayat level also in this regard. The way natural farming has been promoted and got new markets in the past few years, the agriculture production has also increased manifold.
Friends,
The PM Kisan Samman Nidhi is also an example of how small farmers benefit from the use of modern technology. Since the launch of this scheme, more than Rs 2 lakh crore has been directly transferred to the bank accounts of farmers. This help proves handy when the farmers have to buy seeds or fertilizers. This is a huge expenditure for more than 85 percent of the small farmers of the country. Today farmers across the country tell me that the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi has taken care of their huge burden.
Friends,
Today, we are also bridging the distance between the farm and the market by using better and modern technology. The biggest beneficiary of this is our small farmers, who are engaged in producing perishable products like fruits, vegetables, milk, fish, etc. Small farmers have also benefited a lot through Kisan Rails and Krishi Udan air service. These modern facilities are connecting farmers' fields to major cities across the country and markets abroad.
One of the results of these efforts is that agricultural goods are now being exported to those countries, which no one could have imagined earlier. Talking about agricultural exports, India is one of the major 10 countries of the world. Our agricultural exports have grown by 18 per cent, despite the constraints of Corona in the last two years.
Dragon fruit, which is called ‘Kamalam’ in Pahari language, is being exported on a large scale from Gujarat. Black garlic has been exported for the first time from Himachal. There are many fruits like Burmese grapes from Assam, Apricots from Ladakh, Bananas of Jalgaon or Bhagalpuri Zardari Mango that are appealing to foreign markets. Such products are being promoted today under schemes like One District One Product. Today export hubs are also being set up at the district level, which is benefitting the farmers.
Friends,
Today our share in processed food is also increasing very much. This is opening the way for farmers to get higher prices for their produce. The coarse grain of Uttarakhand was exported to Denmark for the first time. Similarly, Organic Jackfruit Powder from Karnataka is also reaching new markets. Now Tripura is also getting ready for this. We have sown these seeds in the last eight years, the crop of which has started ripening now.
Friends,
Let me share some statistics with you and you will realize how progress and change happen. While there were only two big food parks in the country eight years ago, today this number has gone up to 23. We are now making efforts to connect farmer producer unions i.e. FPOs and self-help groups of sisters to this sector as much as possible. The government is making continuous efforts today to ensure involvement of small farmers directly in the cold storage, food processing and exports.
Friends,
The use of technology is resulting in big changes in the whole system from providing seeds to ensuring markets. Our agricultural markets are also being modernized. At the same time, e-NAM has been set up so that farmers can use the technology to sell their produce in any market of the country while sitting at home. So far, more than 1.75 crore farmers and 2.5 lakh traders of the country have joined e-NAM.
You will also be happy to know that transactions worth more than 2 lakh crore rupees have been done through e-NAM so far. You must have noticed that property cards are being given to the farmers by mapping their land and houses. Modern technology like drones is being employed for all these efforts.
Friends,
Our start-ups can take the use of modern technology to a new era to make agriculture more profitable. Today a large number of start-up partners are present in this event. Take note of this figure. There were only 100 start-ups working in the agriculture sector. In the last seven-eight years, this figure has jumped to more than 3,000. These start-ups, these innovative youth and these talents of India are rewriting the future of India's rural economy. Our start-ups have the solution to every problem from cost to transportation.
Kisan Drones are going to make life much easier for the farmers. Drones can predict the fertilizer needed for the soil, how much irrigation is needed and which pesticide is needed. The drones can give you the right guidance. The drone sprays the pesticide where it is required. It will also prevent the wastage of fertilizer and my farmer brothers and sisters will also be saved from the ill-effects of chemicals.
Brothers and sisters,
Today there is another big challenge which I would like to mention before all the farmer friends and our innovators. We all need to work in mission mode by understanding why I am giving so much emphasis on self-reliance in agriculture and what is the role of farmers in this regard. Today, we spend the most on importing edible oil, fertilizers and crude oil. Every year lakhs of crores of rupees are paid to other countries just to buy them. When there is a problem abroad, it has its effect on us too.
We were somehow trying to cope with the Corona when it struck and were looking for ways. Corona has not gone from our lives completely and war broke out in the region from where we used to import so many things. The countries which used to meet most of our requirements are embroiled in war. The impact of the war on such countries has also increased.
For example, fertilizer! Be it urea, DAP or other fertilizers, they have become so expensive in the world markets and our country is faced with so much economic burden. Today we buy urea from abroad at Rs 75-80 per kg. In order to ensure that the farmers of our country are not burdened and they do not face any crisis, we are providing urea to them at 5-6 rupees per kg which we are importing at 75-80 per kg. In order to ensure that farmers get fertilizers at a low price, it takes a toll on the government exchequer. We have to spend about 2.5 lakh crore rupees only on the purchase of urea this year.
Brothers and sisters,
To reduce the expenditure on imports, to make the country self-reliant, we all have to resolve together and walk in that direction together. We also have to make a resolve against importing food and agricultural products. A lot of work is going on in the country today on biofuel and ethanol to reduce the foreign dependence on crude oil and gas. The farmers and our farming are directly connected with this. Work is in progress so that cars can run on ethanol produced from farmer's produce and bio-CNG and biogas is produced from waste and cow dung. We have also started Mission Oil Palm for self-sufficiency in edible oil.
Today I would urge all the farmer friends to take maximum advantage of this mission. We can greatly reduce the import of edible oil by increasing the production of oilseeds. The farmers of the country are fully capable in this regard. When I called you to work on mission mode on pulses in 2015, you took my words seriously and proved it.
Otherwise, what was the situation earlier? We had to import pulses from abroad for our consumption. When our farmers decided, they increased the production of pulses by almost 70 percent. With such will power, we have to move forward and make India's agriculture more modern and take it to new heights. With the resolve that we will make agriculture attractive and prosperous in the ‘Amrit Kaal’ of independence, I convey my best wishes to all my farmer brothers and sisters and to all the youth associated with start-ups.
Thanks a lot!
DISCLAIMER: This is the approximate translation of PM’s speech. Original speech was delivered in Hindi.